January 4, 2017 – Where We Are

BLUE DISCORD; Arianna Gazca; Music: Craig Pruitt; USA; 5:53
In the midst of chaos, feeling crushed by the looming presence of melancholy, a blue light shines upon a vast landscape forged by dreams and desires. In searching for the answer of how music and emotion bring out the inner spirit of absolute expression, this experimental animated visual music piece explores the desire for hope and the haunting of madness.

‘Desert Miracles’ is a cinematic exploration of a commercialized architecture of desire. Across 22 different tableaus the film meditates upon the interiors of Nevada’s wedding chapels, considering how the excessive scenery opens up to constitute a cultural organization of “Love”. A woman’s’ voice is heard reading out an ambiguous letter to an unknown lover in which she finds herself troubled by the challenges of modern relationships, unable to negotiate a balance between self-fulfillment and optimization.

The text is based on anonymous posts by different women in various internet wedding forums. One fictional female character is composed out of many assembled perspectives on desire, relationships and social expectation.

ON THE OTHER SIDE; Tova Beck-Friedman; USA; 5.58
On the Other Side is a living portrait of the aging woman as her “youngness” slips away. Based on a poem by Natalie H. Rogers, the film interweaves voice, animation and music to lay bare the essence of a woman’s vanishing youth; her aging process is irrevocable revealing a deeply fragile and touching reality.

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE SYMBIOCENE; Jenny Brown; AUSTRALIA; 7:57
Sound Collaborators: The Tipping Point by De-Franco featuring the spoken word of Glenn Albrecht from the album Solastalgia and Raffaella Washington.

Glenn Albrecht has situated his concept of solastalgia, or the lived experience of negative environmental change, alongside other ideas that attempt to capture the distinctive forms of grief and mourning that are emerging in the Anthropocene (the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment).

In the first section of this work we are all being stripped naked whilst also riding on other parts of the machinery of capitalism, in this case switching between the roles of excavator operator, television studio audience, television audience and audio-guide learner for the decisions we make for the situations we find ourselves in every day, if we are privileged enough to have options and the inculcated skills to navigate them.

In the second section of the work we come to know that our illness of solastalgia cannot be diagnosed then treated by the biomedical sciences of medicine or psychiatry. In the final section our journey is set in motion towards the Symbiocene.

Read the full interview: artlink.com.au/articles/4523/solastalgia-and-its-cure/

THE NEIGHBORS; Janelle VanderKelen; USA; 12:11
A diaristic exploration of intimacy forced through sonic bleed, this piece examines the blurring of public/private boundaries and details an individual’s honest attempt to foster relationships. Agency is asserted as aural pollution is subverted. The subjunctive turns into reality.

SAARI; Ella Mikkola; CANADA/FINLAND; 6.00
Saari is a film about longing and letting go. The Finnish word “SAARI” means an island. The film is an experimental video collage that explores themes like safety, distance and connection through a subjective memory. The intricacies of the desire to preserve a memory while also attempting to move forward from it serves as an inspiration to this film. The original raw video was filmed in 2006 in Finland with Sony Camcorder and re-photographed in 2016 in Canada. Part of this work has also been filmed with a Bolex film camera.

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